HOUSE CONCERT JUNE 26 7PM

So, if you happen to be anywhere near Tollgate Canyon in Utah, or are intrigued enough to take a roadtrip out on I-80, we will be premiering all of the L/S Commissions at our cabin Friday, June 26, 7PM.  AND there will be a BBQ afterwards.

Here is the invite:  https://www.paperlesspost.com/events/12827382-15f393cc/event_page

THE LISTEN/SPACE COMMISSIONS:
EXTREMELY NEW EXPERIMENTAL CHAMBER MUSIC IN AN IDYLLIC SETTING

HOUSE CONCERT

Featuring premiers of new experimental music by
G. Douglas Barrett (Brooklyn, NY)/André Cormier (Moncton, NB)/ Travis Just (Brooklyn, NY)/ Jonathan Marmor (Cambridge, MA)/ Devin Maxwell (Wanship, UT)/ Quentin Tolimieri (Brooklyn, NY)

Played by
Christine Tavolacci, flute (Los Angeles)/ Kristin Olson, oboe (NYC)/ Katie Porter, bass clarinet (UT)/ Nathan Herrera, alto saxophone (NYC)/ Stephanie Richards, trumpet (NYC/San Diego), Eric KM Clark, violin (Los Angeles), Kevin Farrell, bass (NYC), Gavin Ryan, vibraphone (UT), Andrew Munsey, percussion (NYC)

FRIDAY JUNE 26, 2015
7PM
2903 S FOREST MEADOW ROAD
TOLLGATE CANYON, UTAH
84017

Musicians will be in the garage. Audience will be outside. Please BYOB and bring camping chairs, blankets, sweaters, pot-luck, etc, make yourselves comfy.
Music starts at 7PM
BBQ at 8PM

About the Listen/Space Commissions:

This year we commissioned 6 new experimental chamber music pieces for 9 performers. These works represent our long-time collaborators and the best of the music we presented in our concert venue, Listen/Space, in Brooklyn. Over the week of June 22-29, 2015 an all-star ensemble is gathering in our cabin to rehearse and record these new pieces. This House Concert will be our celebratory run-through before we head into the recording studio. More about the project: https://listenspacemusic.wordpress.com/

Please join us!

6 out of 6! Travis Just’s KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN

Our last commission arrived!  And it’s like icing on the cake.  KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN from Travis Just for flute, oboe, alto sax, bass clarinet, trumpet, violin, electric bass and drums.  My bass clarinet part is totally big and raucous, the trumpet and sax are improvising a bit and there’s a drumset.  YES>  I can really tell that Travis wrote this for this specific group of players.  We are going to do what we do best in this piece.

I’ve played and listened to Travis’ music for a long time, and this piece is so exciting to me.   I’m a big fan.  We also had a lot of fun hosting Object Collection in various forms at Listen/Space.

Cheers from the mountain!  Can’t wait for everyone to get here.

kp

More about Travis Just:  http://www.objectcollection.us/about/about-us/

Travis’ music as Object Collection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJvmDRK5seU

Our next commission: Devin Maxwell’s “Ogden, UT”

Devin says he’s going to write pieces about places until we find a place in the world that is right for us.  This one’s called Ogden, UT, where he watched a great baseball game with the kids.

I think the second movement is going to sound like King Crimson.  Super loud non-stop bass clarinet and alto saxophone tremolos!

More about Devin here:  www.devinmaxwell.net

A piece we’ve been listening to a lot lately in our cabin now that the kids can work the record player: Chord Toss 2 http://devinmaxwell.net/chord-toss-2/

 

Jonathan Marmor’s “Short Stories” for the Listen/Space Commissions

This score is epic!  I am thrilled to get more totally brand new ideas about chamber music for our commissions!  Actually, I’m not sure if Jonathan’s ideas are very new or very old, based in music traditions I don’t fully understand.  I can’t wait to talk to him some more about this piece.  Jonathan presented some beautiful pieces at L/S in Brooklyn and we spent many days in rehearsals there for Clarinet & Synthesizers and Cattle in the Woods and several other crazy pieces.

Jonathan’s Short Stories is fifteen intense 25-80 second movements.  He writes “the instructions and rhythm notation conventions used are intended to force us to agree on a unique performance practice.”

Almost every note is ornamented in some way, with many lines in unison throughout the ensemble.  Short Stories, for flute, oboe, clarinet, alto saxophone, trumpet, violin, bass and vibraphone, is going to test our limits as an ensemble and take us to some seriously new places.

More about Jonathan here:  http://jonathanmarmor.com/

Animal Play performed by ensemble Mimitabu

Another score! Quentin Tolimieri’s Septet

Quentin Tolimieri presented a several concert length pieces of multi-channel electronic music at Listen/Space.  Dense, harmonically complex and often really funny, these pieces are some of my favorites.

For our commission, Quentin has written us a Septet for flute, oboe, clarinet, alto sax, trumpet, violin, and percussion.   I can’t quite put together what it will sound like when the ensemble gathers together next month, but my best guess is a microtonal march with a sweeping violin on top.  Can’t wait to find out!

More on Quentin’s music:

http://quentintolimieri.com/

Dedalus playing Any Number of Instruments by Quentin Tolimieri

Our next commission arrived! G. Douglas Barrett’s “Everything is purged from this composition but Melody, no ideas have entered this work (x100)”

We are extremely excited to have received G. Douglas Barrett’s new piece for our Listen/Space Commissions.

Several years ago at Listen/Space in Brooklyn, Doug floored us by sending a piece of music fully finished for a small chamber group, and after the performance, he transcribed the performance for a whole new set of players to perform the next night.   The resulting new piece included sounds of doors opening and closing, audience rustlings, applause, all of it, inside the musical composition.  This cycle went on and on, through several iterations of pieces, much like the telephone game.  And the music was beautiful.

Doug’s new piece for our commissions is called “Everything is purged from this composition but Melody, no ideas have entered this work”.  In the score Doug tells us it is based on American artist John Baldessari’s 1966-8 painting Everything is purged from this painting but art, no ideas have entered this work.

It looks like we will have 100 times to get this phrase right.  And with a 9 piece ensemble, that will be thrilling!

Here is an excerpt of some of Doug’s past work:  https://vimeo.com/38469361#email

More about Doug here: http://www.gdouglasbarrett.com/

André Cormier’s Piling Sand – Piling Stone 2

An excerpt of Piling Sand – Piling Stone 2 by the string duo Suna no Onna, live at Listen/Space in 2008.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBNhaSCgsyM

Our first commission arrrived: André Cormier

We received our first score for the Listen/Space Commissions from our long-time collaborator and friend, André Cormier!

The piece is called Dengel Sele Esbe and is for flute, oboe, bass clarinet, trumpet, alto saxophone, bass drum, vibraphone, violin, double bass.  It looks amazing.

I met André on my first day at CalArts in the fall of 2000.  A few hours later, I would meet Devin, as André brought him to a party in the graduate dorms.  So, really, Devin and André were the first two people I met there, and I definitely felt like I had found my right place in the world. Who knew this would begin a seemingly lifetime of collaborations?

Devin and I have performed André’s duo for clarinet and percussion, Sommeill, at least a dozen times, in Vancouver at BLIM and the Vancouver New Music Series and Festival, Kenyon College in Ohio, Rocco’s in Hollywood, the Ontological-Theater in NYC, Spectrum in NYC, and on the series in Moncton, New Brunswick, Le Hum.

Andre’s music was also the very first music we presented at Listen/Space in Williamsburg in 2008.   The microtonal string duo Suno No Onna performed Piling Sand, Piling Stone 2, a 90-minute cumulative delay loop to a completely packed house, it was beautiful.

More about Andre and his wonderful music here: http://www.emsis.ca/

(Pictured above: A: things on top of our piano, today, March 8, 2015, include the score for Petit Tableau by André Cormier.  B: André, Robin Streb and Laura Thomas Merino from Suna no onna, Devin Maxwell, Travis Just and Orin Hidestadt at Listen/Space in the spring of 2009)

more to come, thanks for your support!

Katie Porter

COMMISSIONING PROJECT : 2015

LISTEN/SPACE has commissioned 6 new experimental works for 9 players in 2015.  More info coming soon!